Tailoring Illumination Strategies for Optimal Plant Growth and Resource-Use Efficiency in Sole-Source Vertical Farming and Supplementary Lighting in Greenhouses
A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Horticultural and Floricultural Crops".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2026 | Viewed by 5
Special Issue Editors
Interests: plant photobiology; phytochemistry; metabolism; morphogenesis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Lighting strategies in controlled environment agriculture have rapidly diversified, offering multiple approaches to crop illumination. However, despite these possibilities, establishing generally applicable guidelines for optimally tailoring illumination to achieve consistent plant growth and resource-use efficiency remains challenging. This uncertainty arises from biological variability, system-specific constraints, and trade-offs between productivity, crop quality, and resource use.
In sole-source vertical farming systems, illumination should be precisely tailored to regulate plant physiological responses and maximise growth under fully artificial conditions. In contrast, greenhouse production requires optimisation of supplementary lighting alongside natural radiation, where effectiveness depends on timing, intensity, and integration with fluctuating light environments. These differences highlight the need for system-specific tailoring of illumination strategies rather than universally applied solutions.
This Special Issue aims to advance understanding of how illumination strategies can be tailored to improve plant growth and resource-use efficiency, with an emphasis on physiological mechanisms and optimisation approaches. We are soliciting original research, reviews, and perspectives addressing plant responses, lighting technologies, and practical optimisation strategies in vertical farming and greenhouse production.
Dr. Akvilė Viršilė
Guest Editor
Dr. Gediminas Kudirka
Guest Editor Assistant
Manuscript Submission Information
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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- crop optimization
- greenhouse horticulture
- vertical farming
- CEA
- light emitting diodes (LEDs)
- plant physiological response
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